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Still nesting

3K views 48 replies 10 participants last post by  henry 
#1 ·
I was helping the neighbor with hay this weekend. Ran a hen with several real small little ones out of one field. Saw a hen with 2 quail sized poults in the same field later in the day. Next morning, he hit 2 hens sitting nest with the cutter. One nest had 8 eggs and the other 11. The nest were about 250 yds apart. This was in Tx county.
 
#2 ·
This time of year its a roll of the dice. Sometimes good results, sometimes bad. You hope to hit it big, but in reality, you really hope to not lose too much.
With nests being only about 250 yards apart, I wonder how many nests you could get on 160 acres? :thinking:
 
#6 ·
This time of year its a roll of the dice. Sometimes good results, sometimes bad. You hope to hit it big, but in reality, you really hope to not lose too much.
With nests being only about 250 yards apart, I wonder how many nests you could get on 160 acres? :thinking:
13. But if you have 13 nests on 160 acres thats 52 hens per sq mile and 98 total turkeys per sq mile so you would have some of the highest turkey densities ever. Doesnt seem lik that would be point to a predator problem.

They said that hens AVERAGE 500m, but sometimes nest closer. Hitting 2 on that distance highlights the real problem which is lack of high quality nesting cover.
 
#7 ·
I have not experienced that mowing hay for many years in north central missouri. I cant remember hitting but one maybe two nests mowing 100 + acres a year . Fawns are another story. I dont doubt the stories from you guys. I wonder if its more common in areas with large tracts of mature timber and less common in areas with more brush and understory?
 
#11 ·
Why would one impact the other?
 
#16 ·
Some in that picture could certainly be poults
 
#23 ·
There ya go joe. He has looked in his crystal ball and seen that farm without asking a single question. :rofl:
 
#24 ·
Dont need to. If he wants more nesting cover mature forest is what isnt helping, and neither is cool season grass most likely.
Font Publication Document Parallel Paper
 
#26 ·
See Joe. 60% of that farm could be ideal nesting habitat but that 35% you weren't asked about is holding you back. Haha
 
#27 ·
By his own numbers thats not true.
 
#29 ·
I thought that mature timber is the ideal roosting area, especially if its on northeast facing slopes. I also thought that diversity is a good thing and too much of one thing is a bad thing for wildlife including turkey and deer. Is blackberry a good thing or a bad thing for nesting areas? I got a lot of it next to/in much of my wooded area.
 
#32 ·
A better plan would be for people in the city that trap problem raccoons, opossums & skunks to let them loose on your farm, it will definitely help the turkey population...at lease that is what I have learned from the turkey talk this Spring, more predator is better than less predators!
 
#34 ·
A better plan would be for people in the city that trap problem raccoons, opossums & skunks to let them loose on your farm, it will definitely help the turkey population...at lease that is what I have learned from the turkey talk this Spring, more predator is the same as less predators!
Fify
 
#35 ·
The field is 60 acres and a 50/50 mix of orchard and fescue. There is some clover but not much. On the average the grass was waist high. I can watch this field from my porch and usually is very productive during the spring. This year i saw 1 gobbler and 3 hens use the field. I saw the gobbler 1 time and he was pecking his way across the field. Regarding habitat, there is some great nesting habitat on the west side. It is a 140 acre piece of timber that has been cut three times. pretty thick in places and was full of birds all spring. On the east side I have 15 cares of native grass that I dint burn last spring. On the south side, I have 280 aches that is a mix of select cut timber, grown up fields, food plots and mature un cut timber. Go figure , why the hens do what they do.
 
#45 ·
Theres a lot of great work being done on spring burns and turkey nesting right now. Basic conclusion is the benefits outweigh any nest loss, and nest loss is minimal.
 
#46 ·
I believe that the biologists probably do not have a good handle on the complexities of turkey nest. Looking at the apparent methodology using radio transmitters and relying on the hen being in the same place everyday to say it is nesting does not tell the rest of the story.
When it was apparent that there were so many racoon present on my farm that the turkey could not even hatch eggs in great weather as evidence by 2 years of zero production.
I believe that our discussion of turkey should answer some things that would shed more light upon what is happening in turkey recruitment and which may lead to different results then what is usually suggested.
The measuring tool on whether a hen is nesting or not could and probably does not count nests that are destroyed early in the egg laying process.
A QUESTION WHICH I DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER TO BUT I DO HAVE MY SUSPICIONS IS WHETHER AFTER A NEST FAILURE A DUMB HEN KEEPS USING THE SAME NEST OR WHETHER THEY WILL CHANGE THERE NEST LOCATION. There was a recent thread in which it was asked whether the horrid rain and flooding we have received may not be good for turkey production.
In one case i can see that the likelihood of turkey getting chewed up in the old farmers hay field is greater in a year like this . Even later haying is not going to save the day. The old farmer usually runs cattle thru out the year in different pastures , most farmers will run the cattle thru there hay ground sometime in the winter which leaves no where for a hen to put a nest if her first nest is successful, it will be where there is some cover. EVEN WHEAT WILL HAVE NO COVER TO NEST IN WHEN THE TURKEY START NESTING.
After the hazelville turkey flock had melted down over 90 percent from the hights i say there the historic data appeared on fur bearers and the answers to the question that fellow ne Missourians starting asking in 1989 got its answer.
Up here way up stream where rivers are little more then branched ditches as they get started we had not had floods for three full seasons , we had not really had a real winter since 2009. ALL OF THAT CHANGED THIS YEAR.
mY THEORY UPON THE RISE OF THE EGG SUCKERS IS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN A CONSTANT BUT CONSTANTLY INCREASING DETERRENT TO TURKEY PRODUCTION HERE WITH THE INCREASINGLY DIRE SITUATION INCREASING FOR 29 YEARS.
One would think that as disease hits the racoon as it has my farm twice since 1991the turkey would have a bit better hatch , but having that bit better hatch will be found to be scientific fact that the weather has to be good when the turkey are nesting in cover not the old farmers pasture. The turkey destroyed in the old farmers hay fields will be second third 4th attempt hatches.
i HAVE KNOWN ALL ALONG THAT TO GO FROM ZERO TURKEY PRODUCTION TO 78 PERCENT NESTING SUCCESS AND A 3.57 H TO P RATIO IS SIGNIFICANT . WAY UP THERE ON THE STANDARD DEVIATION SCALE. It has looked like the scientific methodology implied with the snap shot studies being done are lacking in more ways then unquantified variables. to again have similar results leads us to year three. we had a winter we have had lots of flash floods even thou way up here the water is seldom out more than a few hours.
I have been seeing hens out and about , being that they seemed to be more alone then being together i have has faith that there are chicks out there.i saw a hen with at least 7 or 8 chicks a couple weeks ago . the chicks were tiny the old farmer reported several hens with small chicks when he no tilled a bean field that was not harvested last year and when he sprayed it last week.
I bought a cabelas branded white ir game cam a few weeks ago. On my first card change i was really excited to find over 800 pictures on the card. But then a DUMBEST ONES moment occurred. somewhere between the truck and that cam a bunch of cards disappeared. Yesterday i returned checking a short patch for the 7th and 8th time and pulled another card. This time i got home with the card.
No wonder i an seeing so many hens out and about in the best brooding over i have ever had but was not seeing pouts.I never thought that the turkey production here would not run circles around the state and region where the eggs are still being sucked but it appears te drop from the 3.0 and above is not going to fall very far.The only real question is whether our state will keep from setting a all time historical low.
Plant People in nature Natural landscape Tree Fawn

Plant Tree Branch Natural landscape People in nature

Plant Tree People in nature Natural landscape Fawn

All together there were three hens with at least 7 chicks . THEY ARE SO SMALL THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET A GOOD COUNT ON THEM. They are probably so small that non believers or the non believer from the lonely land of Stupid could again deny the overwhelming evidence that he is .
 
#49 ·
Answers above^^
Tsi and grass management should be keeping your understory of both favorible to nesting and brooding. Next time you burn that cool season you should have the neighbor come down and lightly disk it for ya. I burn my grasses early to avoid crossover with nesting . I just love what fire does for them.
 
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